 Napoleon Bonaparte, one the most notable Italian French personality who turned France into a militarydictatorship[1] | |
| Total population | |
| c. 5,500,000 (by ancestry, about 8% of the total French population including corsicans)[2][3][4][5][6] Residents of France born in Italy 470,032 Italian citizens in France (2024)[7] | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Paris,Lyon,Lille,Strasbourg,Lorraine, Southeastern France (Provence,Savoy,Corsica andNice have autochthonous Italian populations), Southwestern France | |
| Languages | |
| French andFrench dialects · Italian andItalian dialects | |
| Religion | |
| Roman Catholicism,Judaism | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Italians,Italian Belgians,Italian Britons,Italian Finns,Italian Germans,Italian Romanians,Italian Spaniards,Italian Swedes,Italian Swiss,Corfiot Italians,Genoese in Gibraltar,Italians of Crimea,Italians of Odesa,Italian Canadians |
Italian French (Italian:italo-francesi;French:italo-français) areFrench-born citizens who are fully or partially ofItalian descent, whose ancestors wereItalians who emigrated to France during theItalian diaspora, or Italian-born people in France.
Italian migration into what is today France has been going on, in different migrating cycles, for centuries, beginning in prehistoric times right to the modern age.[8][9] In addition,Corsica passed from theRepublic of Genoa to France in 1768, and the county ofNice andSavoy from theKingdom of Sardinia to France in 1860.
About 5.5 millionFrench nationals are of Italian origin, corresponding to about 8% of the total population (includingCorsicans).[2][3][4][5][6]
There has always been migration, since ancient times, between what is today Italy and France. This is especially true of the regions of northwestern Italy and southeastern France. As Italian wealth and influence grew during the Middle Ages, manyFlorentine, Genoese and Venetian traders, bankers and artisans settled, usually through family branches, throughout France. Regions of significantItalian diaspora sprang up as far north asParis andFlanders. However it was not much as a percentage of the French global population.
This Italian migration developed more through the Renaissance, as previous generations became assimilated. Italian artists, writers and architects were called upon by the French monarchy and aristocrats, leading to a significant interchange of culture, but it was not a massive immigration of popular classes. The 17th and 18th centuries were the era of the Italian dancers, musicians,commedia dell'arte troupes and actors of the theatreHôtel de Bourgogne.
Since the 16th century, Florence and its citizens have long enjoyed a very close relationship with France.[10] In 1533, at the age of 14,Catherine de' Medici marriedHenry, the second son of King Francis I and Queen Claude of France. Under the gallicised version of her name, Catherine de Médicis, becameQueen consort of France when Henry ascended to the throne in 1547. Later on, after Henry died, she became regent on behalf of her 10-year-old sonKing Charles IX and was granted sweeping powers. After Charles died in 1574, Catherine played a key role in the reign of her third son,Henry III.
Other notable examples of Italians that played a major role in the history of France includeCardinal Mazarin, born inPescina was a cardinal, diplomat and politician, who served as the chief minister of France from 1642 until his death in 1661. Mazarin succeeded his mentor,Cardinal Richelieu, and extended France's political ambitions not only within Italy but towards England as well.
Enrico Tonti, born near Gaeta, Italy (c. 1649–1704) was a soldier, explorer, and fur trader in the service of France. He was the son ofLorenzo de Tonti, a financier and former governor of Gaeta. Enrico was second in command of the La Salle expedition on his descent of the Mississippi River. Tonti's letters and journals are valuable source materials on these explorations.
Enrico's brother, PierreAlphonse de Tonti, or Alphonse de Tonty, Baron de Paludy (c. 1659–1727) was an officer who served under the French explorer Cadillac and helped establish the first European settlement at Detroit, Michigan, Fort Pontchartrain du Detroit on the Detroit River in 1701. Several months later, both Cadillac and Tonty brought their wives to the fort, making them the first European women to travel into the interior of North America. He was the son of Lorenzo de Tonti who was a financier and former governor of Gaeta. Lorenzo de Tonti was the inventor of the form of life insurance known as the tontine.Henri de Tonti, involved in La Salle's exploration of the Mississippi River and the establishment of the first settlement in Arkansas, was his older son.
Napoleon Bonaparte, French military dictator, general, and eventualemperor, was ethnicallyItalian of Corsican origin, whose family was ofGenoese andTuscan ancestry.[11] Italian popular immigration to France only began in the late 18th century, really developed from the end of the 19th century untilWorld War I, and became quite massive after this war. France needed workforce to compensate for the war losses and its very low birthrate. It was in the second half of the 19th century that Italian immigration to France assumed the connotations of a mass phenomenon. A census of the residents of the foreign community carried out in 1851 by the French authorities revealed that out of about 380,000 foreign residents, 63,000 were Italians (Piedmontese in primis). The number of Italians residing in France grew rapidly throughout the 19th century reaching the number of 165,000 in 1876 and 240,000 in 1881. It was from this date that Italian immigration to France began to decrease. The main causes were the economic recession that characterized the French economy in this period and the poor diplomatic relations between the two countries, due to theTunisian question. The diplomatic crisis was further fueled by Italy's entry into theTriple Alliance in 1882.
At the end of the 19th century it was quite common for Italian immigrants to send their children back to Italy until they were 12, before taking them back to France.[12] To satisfy the requirements of the civil status, which then required choosing names from the French calendar, they called their children, for example, Albert and Marie, but, in the family context, everyone called them Alberto and Maria.[12] At the beginning of the 20th century, the Italian community became the first resident foreign community in the country, with almost 500,000 people in 1911. The eastern suburbs ofParis, for example, were distinguished by a very high concentration of Italians inClichy,Levallois-Perret,Puteaux andSuresnes.[13] Until the eve of World War I, the cause of Italian immigration to France was essentially economic. In France, there was a shortage of manpower, especially in agriculture and industry (factories and mines) and construction. French demands for Italian labor grew at the end of World War I.
With the advent offascism in Italy, emigration of political origin was added to economic emigration. During the 1920s there were many Italian politicians from various backgrounds who were forced to take refuge in France, includingEugenio Chiesa,Filippo Turati,Gaetano Salvemini,Carlo Rosselli,Nello Rosselli,Giuseppe Saragat,Pietro Nenni,Sandro Pertini and many others. But paradoxically there were also, albeit few, supporters of the fascist regime, such as the writerPitigrilli,OVRA agent in Turin and Paris. In 1938, the French section of theNational Fascist Party had only 3,000 members,[14] represented by Nicola Bonservizi, assassinated in 1924 by an Italian anarchist in exile. The fascist regime intended to preserve the "Italian character" of the immigrants, wanting to prevent the assimilation of their compatriots by France. Thus he worked to promote patriotic exaltation by creating more than 200 sections of the National Association of Italian Veterans in French cities, placing the Italian associations under the control of the consulates, bringing together the peasants within cooperatives that depended on the Italian banks. On the contrary, the anti-fascists encouraged immigrants to integrate into French society by participating in social and political struggles alongside trade union organizations.[12]
In 1931, the Italian community in France numbered over 800,000 residents, but the flow was cut short by the outbreak ofWorld War II. At the end of the latter, migrations from Italy resumed, but they were much less important than those recorded at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. Starting from the 1940s, there was a decline in the number of Italian residents, due to mass naturalizations and the increase in the number of repatriations. In fact, the naturalizations carried out from 1927 to 1940 pursuant to the law of 10 August 1927 on citizenship concerned, for more than half of them, people born in Italy, or almost 260,000 people.[15] Of these, almost 4,500 people were deprived of their French citizenship following the law of 22 July 1940, which accounted for almost a third of the disqualifications pronounced under this law promulgated by theVichy regime.[15]
In 1946, after the end of World War II, the number of Italians decreased to 450,000, then rose to 570,000 in 1968, before falling again to 460,000 in 1975 and 350,000 in 1981. In the following decades, the phenomenon of Italian immigration to France decreased considerably and changed its aspect. If immigration at the beginning of the 20th century consisted mainly of peasants, miners and workers, from the years of theItalian economic miracle more qualified workers began to flow.[16] Furthermore, many Italians who already lived in the country rose socially, exercising free professions, entrepreneurs and traders, or restaurateurs.
Initially, Italian immigration to modern France (late 18th to the early 20th century) came predominantly from northern Italy (Piedmont,Veneto), then from central Italy (Marche,Umbria), mostly to the bordering southeastern region ofProvence.[8] It was not until after World War II that large numbers of immigrants fromsouthern Italy immigrated to France, usually settling in industrialised areas of France, such asLorraine,Paris andLyon.[8]
As regards theregional origin of Italian immigrants and their descendants in France, it is necessary to make a division by periods. From the end of the 19th century until the eve of World War II, the Italian regions that provided the largest number of migrants were those of theNorth, first of allPiedmont, followed in order byTuscany,Lombardy,Veneto,Friuli-Venezia Giulia andEmilia-Romagna. In the case of Piedmont it was above all seasonal immigration due to geographical proximity. In contrast, Italian immigration after World War II saw a growth in the migratory component from theSouthern regions, particularlySicily,Calabria andApulia.
The areas of greatest concentration of Italian immigration to France were the departments ofNormandy,Alsace,Rhône,Loire,Isère,Moselle,Île-de-France (mainly inParis andSeine-Saint-Denis,Val-d'Oise andVal-de-Marne),Nord-Pas-de-Calais,Bouches-du-Rhône,Savoie andHaute-Savoie,Lot-et-Garonne,Var,Alpes-Maritimes andCorsica. In these last two regions the Italian immigration was favored not only by the geographical proximity, but also by the ethnic and linguistic affinity with their own inhabitants, Corsica was also influenced in its history bySardinia,Tuscany andLiguria, and Italian was the official language of Corsica until 1853. The main cities with a large Italian immigrant community were Strasbourg,Paris,Lyon,Marseille,Nice andGrenoble, cities that still host the largest Italian-French communities today (40,000 Sicilians in Grenoble in 2007[17]). TheLorient region also experienced considerable Italian immigration during the interwar period; at the time, "Italian houses" were built in large numbers.[18]
About 5.5 millionFrench nationals are of Italian origin, corresponding to about 8% of the total population.[2][3][4][5][6] According to data for 2021, the number of Italian citizens residing in France was 444,113.[19]
| Year | 1851 | 1876 | 1901 | 1911 | 1921 | 1931 | 1936 | 1946 | 1954 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Population | 63,307 | 165,313 | 330,465 | 419,234 | 451,000 | 808,038 | 720,926 | 450,764 | 589,524 |
| Year | 1960 | 1968 | 1975 | 1982 | 1985 | 1990 | 1998 | 1999 | 2001 |
| Population | 688,474 | 571,694 | 462,940 | 333,740 | 293,000 | 252,759 | 212,023 | 201,670 | 198,344 |
Italians living in France have never reported themselves as particularly perpetrators of criminal or even criminal acts, except since the 1950s, when Italianmafia-typecriminal organizations began to establish themselves in the country (Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur,Grenoble [theItalo-Grenoblois],Paris).[21]
On the other hand, Italian immigrant workers were at times the object of violent hostility on the part of the local populations for reasons of labor competition. Most notable was themassacre of Italians at Aigues-Mortes inProvence which took place between 16 and 20 August 1893, where a mob of angry French workers violently assaulted Italians they believed to be undercutting their wages and taking jobs in the salt works. The official death toll stood at nine, but according to other sources, such as the British newspaperThe Times, 50 Italians were killed.[22] An earlier incident occurred on 17 June 1881 inMarseille, where 15,000 Frenchmen attempted to attack an Italian club. Four days of clashes followed with the harsh reaction of the Italians, which ended with three dead, 21 wounded and 200 arrests.[23] Meanwhile, in 1882, four Italian workers in theBeaucaire blast furnaces were killed by the local population.[24]
There were many derogatory terms used by the French, the best known beingmacaroni, i.e.spaghetti eater, andrital. Today almost all the descendants of the ancient Italian immigrations are assimilated and episodes ofanti-Italianism are rare.
Arriving in France, the Italian immigrants mainly spoke theItalian language. However the majority were bilingual, speaking aregional dialect mainly in the family; at the end of the 19th century/beginning of the 20th century, the linguistic unification of Italy was not fully achieved, and therefore it was not uncommon for some immigrants to speak only their regional dialect without being able to speak Italian. In general, Italian immigrants were able to learn French without major difficulties, given the linguistic proximity of the two Latin languages. At the time of the great Italian migratory waves, France had a rather rigid assimilation policy, which forced most of the immigrants and their descendants to abandon their mother tongue in favor of French.
Italian cuisine has had a strong influence above all on the cuisine of the French southeastern regions, where the presence and relations with the Italians are very ancient.Provence, theCounty of Nice, the city ofSète or theAlps have some recipes for this phenomenon. It wasLiguria that influenced the most due to its geographical proximity, butsouthern Italy also brought its share of flavors. Some Italian-French dishes are (in brackets the original names in Italian of the recipes):
Provence,Savoy,Corsica andNice have autochthonous Italian populations. TheItalian language is spoken by a minority in France, especially in the southeastern part of the country.[26][27]
Italian was the official language inSavoy and inNice until 1860, when they were both annexed by France from theKingdom of Sardinia under theTreaty of Turin, a development that triggered the "Niçard exodus", or the emigration of a quarter of theNiçard Italians to Italy,[28] and theNiçard Vespers.Giuseppe Garibaldi complained about the referendum that allowed France to annex Savoy and Nice, and a group of his followers (among theItalian Savoyards) took refuge in Italy in the following years.
Corsica passed from theRepublic of Genoa to France in 1769 after theTreaty of Versailles. Italian was the official language ofCorsica until 1859.[29] Giuseppe Garibaldi called for the inclusion of the "Corsican Italians" within Italy whenRome was annexed to theKingdom of Italy, but KingVictor Emmanuel II did not agree. Italian is generally understood in Corsica by the population resident therein who speakCorsican, which is an Italo-Romance idiom similar to Tuscan.[30]
Francization occurred in Nice and Corsica cases, and caused a near-disappearance of the Italian language as many of the Italian speakers in these areas migrated to Italy.[31][32]
The list is organized chronologically, listing Italians in France by birth date periods.
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5 million italians in france.
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